din-din

I had a great dinner with one of my oldest friends, Jordan, last night. Jordan, my sister Sarah and I have been friends since nursery school!! We met in Fredericksburg, which is close to halfway between Charlottesville and Falls Church, VA. The plan was to meet at Outback, but there was an almost two hour wait! We ended up going to O'Charlies and had a very nice dinner. Jordan brought along a picture of the three of us at Sarah's rehearsal dinner - we were all laughing at something - probably recalling memories of our time together on Long Island. Let's do it again soon, Jordan!!!

Taking a serious look at spending...

I've started bringing my breakfast and lunch to work to save $$ and have a better idea of caloric intake. I noticed I was spending a lot on coffee, yogurt, granola for breakfast and salad or soup for lunch. And of course an afternoon coffee. I've cut spending from $10 a day to $10 a week! What will I do with all the extra cash?? Hmm.

'nother post about peach preserves

Tonight I invited two work friends to come over and bake for Valentine's Day. I'm not a big V-day fan but I do like to bake stuff for my friends and a holiday is a good excuse. We made chocolate chip cookies (a Martha Stewart recipe that I was afraid to try but it turned out to be really easy), butterscotch and chocolate cookie bars, oatmeal raisin-cranberry cookies and macaroons. Yum. My friend Susan brought dinner including a salad and home-made dressing. The dressing called for raspberry preserves but she used peach preserves instead - the very same peach preserves mom made for Sarah's wedding. I took several jars home and gave them out to my friends - including Susan. The preserves live on...

lovely dinner

I invited a few friends over for dinner last night - no special occasion but a nice way to brighten up the winter. I served rack of lamb, a first for me, sweet potatoes, green beans, squash and zucchini, and brownies for dessert. My friend Laura brought over the squash and zucchini and sauteed it while everything else finished cooking. The sweet potatoes were really easy; I chopped them up, left the skins on, and surrounded the lamb with them. A little salt, pepper, olive oil and cinnamon and they were done.
Susan also came over and brought her new dog, McGee, who she adopted this weekend. He is so cute and friendly and didn't bark once. I would love to adopt a dog but my apt. is just not suited for one. Northern Va. has a golden retriever rescue society and that would be my first choice for adoption.
Anyway, back to dinner. Everything turned out really well and it was probably the easiest meal I've ever cooked for guests. We watched Oceans 13 afterwards and I really liked it. I never saw the previous Oceans, which are not a prerequisite for this one.

Ahead of the Curve

My friend Brooke is getting married next spring and has been searching through catalogs to get ideas for her wedding. In Martha Stewart's most recent wedding publication she came across a section detailing how to personalize wedding favors based on the location of the wedding, hometown of bride and groom, etc. For Georgia Martha's idea was peach preserves! My mom and sister beat her to the punch by a good year and a half. Mom and her friends spent hours making peach preserves from GA peaches for Sarah's wedding and they turned out so well.
Way to go!

Go Pats

I'm picking the Pats today after my Packers fell to the Giants. I'm excited about the superbowl but it seems like such a loooong time before next season.